Australian EV infrastructure company Tritium will supply as many as 600 of its world-leading high power chargers for an electric vehicle charging network being rolled out across Europe, after being selected as a technology partner for the project.

The IONITY project, a joint venture with BMW Group, Daimler, Ford and the Volkswagen Group, ultimately aims to deploy a pan-European network of around 400 high power charging stations, to ensure EV drivers are always within 120km of a fast charge point.

The deal means Brisbane-based Tritium will supply its charging technology for 100 high-power charging sites being built by IONITY across Germany, France, UK, Norway and Sweden.

The dedicated EV charging stations will have an average of up to six user units, each capable of delivering 350kW of power for fast charging of a wide range of EV makes and models.

As we noted here on Tuesday, the Australian made technology means that EV drivers can recharge their batteries almost as fast as filling up a petrol tank, thus helping to bust one of the few remaining barriers to EV uptake – range anxiety. And Tritium expects to bring charging times down even further.

“We already have a leading position in the European fast-charging market and could see that demand was really taking off, which is one of the reasons we recently opened our new sales, testing and assembly facility in Amsterdam,” said David Finn CEO and Founder at Tritium, in comments on Thursday.

“This deal with IONITY shows just how fast the transition to EVs is happening.”

IONITY CEO Michael Hajesch said the company had chosen to partner with Tritium because of their world-leading technology – and their proven ability to develop and deliver the chargers quickly.

Notably, the fast chargers are being manufactured at Tritium’s base in Brisbane, which was recently expanded to deliver a seven-fold increase in production capacity, from around 60 units a month, to 6,000 a year.

2 Comments

Aston Olsen 9 months ago

It’s a big exaggeration to say it’s as fast as filling up regular fuel. These 350kw fast chargers give 150km range in 5 mins. An ICE vehicle can get 800-1,000km of range in 5 mins. The comparison to regular vehicles needs to be full charge or at least charging to ~80%. Which with long range EVs (800km+ range) is still likely to be 30+ mins with 350kw charging.

This infrastructure is a great step in the right direction, but let’s not kid anyone that it’s as fast as ICE refuelling.

Biff 9 months ago

Agree. I’m as big a climate evangelist as the next person, but it bugs me when people try to overhype these technologies. Liquid fuels are energy-dense, fast to refuel, and convenient, with batteries a good way behind on these measures, at least for long-distance highway driving.